Trend shows experience trumps pay for student interns

COLUMBIA — MU senior Tommy Mueller has had an
internship with Northwestern Mutual since November 2008. He receives course
credit from MU for his work and is paid on commission. Although the company guarantees he'll make $1,000 a semester, Mueller, a finance major, has made $10,000 since August. His intern experience is preparing him for a career after college.

"I wanted to get a taste of the
industry," Mueller said. "This is the best internship in regards to learning the lifestyle and
duties of a financial adviser. They train us — they
put us on the front lines."

The
intern does not displace regular employees and works under close observation.

The
employer derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern, and,
in some cases, their operation might actually be
impeded.

The
intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the end of the internship.

The
employer and the intern understand that the intern isn't entitled to wages for
their time spent in training.

When he graduates this weekend, Mueller
will be hired as a regular employee at the company.

These days, Mueller's situation appears to be more and more uncommon. According to Mimi Collins, the director of communications for the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a 2008 study from NACE found that 50 percent of graduating students
have held internship
positions and that experts estimate between one-fourth and one-half of
those internships are unpaid.

Unpaid internships seem to be standard in some fields, and many students go along with it.
Add economic uncertainty and a slew of financially troubled companies
to millions of college students desperate to get ahead in a competitive
job market, and you get a breeding ground for unpaid internships.

Experience matters

MU senior Lauren Ericson spent a summer
interning with the Stray Dog Theatre in St. Louis. She worked as a stage
manager, running rehearsals and supervising
props.

"It was almost like a job, but it
was unpaid," Ericson said. She said she appreciated the hands-on experience.

MU junior LaurieAnn Wojnowski has a
video production internship with MTV.com in New York City this summer.
She
won't be paid, but she will receive course credit. She will get housing as part of the Missouri School of
Journalism's New York Program.

"The fact that I could be working
for a media company is a dream job," Wojnowski said. "I am still in shock of what I'll be doing
this summer." She described the opportunity as a good addition to her resume.

Michael Erwin, a senior manager in
charge of corporate communications at careerbuilder.com, an online job recruitment
agency, said the tendency for companies to hire unpaid interns has risen
recently as companies seek to fill positions left vacant by staff laid
off during the economic recession.

“There are so many students who are
desperate to get experience, and companies see internships as a way of filling
vacant posts,” Erwin said.

MU junior Timothy Collins said he sees his paid
internship with Lockton, an insurance brokerage firm in Kansas City, as a way to
boost his resume.

"It is very important to have at
least one internship before you enter the job market," Collins said.
"It shows not only that you put forth the effort of finding an internship,
but that you have experience in the real world."

Dana Eagles, the newsroom internship coordinator at
the Orlando Sentinel, said it's common to have unpaid interns looking
for educational experiences and coursework credits. Internships often have long-term benefits to companies when
used as a recruiting tool, Eagles said.

Collins said he sees a recruitment opportunity in his upcoming internship.

"This internship actually deals
with a company that I would be more than happy to work for out of
college," he said. "This is the type of career I will
pursue."

He said the company usually hires several interns for jobs from the 20 they hire for the summer.

Economic roots

Like Erwin, Don Malson, director of
career services at Columbia College, blames economic woes for unpaid
internships because companies have been forced to make adjustments and
financial cuts.

"If they could pay interns, they
would like to," Malson said, but most simply can't.

Irvin Harrell, newsroom recruitment director at
the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said the company has a policy of
paying all interns, but he sees where the unpaid trend is coming from.

At a
time when many newsrooms have trimmed staff numbers to a bare minimum, Harrell said,
the time spent training an intern
is the biggest cost that news organizations incur in hiring one.
This adds to other expenses such as mileage, telephone bills, equipment
and accommodation costs that interns might rack up.

“But it’s a symbiotic relationship; we
benefit from the interns’ services and the new perspectives that they bring to
the newsroom,” Harrell said.

Because of this relationship, Malson called any internship a "win-win situation" for both the student and the employer. The employer benefits from the intern's work while the intern gets real-world experience.

A legal issue

Although unpaid internships have gained
popularity among companies, some argue that certain unpaid internships are
illegal. According to an April 2 article in The New York Times, which set off a nationwide discussion about unpaid internships, officials
in Oregon, California and other states have hit companies
that don't pay their interns with minimum-wage violations.

Employers
must comply with six guidelines to legally provide internships
without pay, but many do not comply, the article reported. These criteria outline that unpaid
internships must be for the
benefit of the intern and that no work can directly benefit the
employer, and this seems to have become a
rarity.

"I'm pretty sure everything we
work on is something they're working on to be published," Wojnowski said
of her upcoming internship with MTV. "I don't think there will be mock
assignments."

Internships that cost

While student resumes typically benefit from internships, some companies
seem to take this advantage to the extreme. Not only are they not paying their
interns, but interns are paying them to participate.

Heidi Schmidt, an MU graduate student,
interned as a writer's assistant with the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference in the summer of
2000. She called it a fantastic opportunity despite not being paid.

Now, the conference is asking interns to
pay them in exchange for the opportunity. A
fee of $2,700 covers housing and meals, according to the conference's website. Schmidt is concerned these interns are being "taken advantage of."

Vogue Magazine auctioned off an intern
position on Charitybuzz.com earlier this year. The weeklong position went for $42,500 and includes a trip to New York Fashion Week. Although the money goes to
charity, the opportunity is rather pricey as a resume booster. Vogue offers other internships through an application process, as well.

Some students or families might have the
financial means to take or buy such big-ticket positions for no pay, and others
can't accept an opportunity that produces no income.

During Schmidt's five-week internship
with O'Neill, she was unable to hold a job, creating a situation she described
as "a big challenge." If the internship were offered again, "I
would not financially be able to do it," she said.

During some unpaid internships, students have to look elsewhere to cover living expenses. Harrell said the scarcity of
opportunities for paid internships has forced unpaid interns to look for side jobs to meet their basic expenses, but he
argues that such an arrangement wears out interns who have little spare time.

Some private schools are combating this
problem with compensation for their students. Connecticut College offers students $3,000 the summer between their junior
and senior year for internships. Amy Martin, manager of media relations, said 74 percent of the college's junior class takes advantage of the
program.

"We started the program because we
think it's all important for all students to do an internship," Martin said. "Students are able to do an internship
whether or not they're unpaid. They can also do an internship at any
organization that doesn't have the funding to pay the student. It really does
level the playing field because students who couldn't necessarily afford to
take an internship can take one with any organization that they want."

Other colleges offer students the
same boost. Oberlin College in Ohio gives stipends of $250 to $3,500 to
Oberlin students who take unpaid internships and do projects with organizations
that can't provide financial support. Smith College in Northampton, Mass., has a
program that provides each Smith sophomore or junior a $2,000 stipend to use
for an internship that helps further their career goals.

Promises of pay

But as Mueller's situation shows, paid internships aren't entirely a
thing of the past.

Although Erwin of careerbuilder.com said there is no clear pattern to show which
industries are more likely to offer unpaid versus paid internships, some fields seem to pay more consistently.

Comments

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